1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle parking control system, and primarily to a car parking control system. More specifically, the invention relates to a parking system in which a mobile telephone can be used to commence and terminate a parking period.
2. Description of the Related Art
In cities there will be one or more vehicle parking companies that has/have parking meters, or so-called pay meters, distributed throughout the city or town in a number of different places, where streets and large parking areas are the most common places in this regard.
In recent times, it has become more and more usual to pay parking fees with different types of bankcard or cashcard as a supplement to coin payment. When a cashcard is used, the person parking a vehicle will draw the card through a cashcard reader on the pay meter.
One known payment system is designed so that the person parking a vehicle draws the cashcard through a card reader in the pay meter, and the pay meter stores the number of the cash card and the time at which the card was read.
The pay meter then prints out a parking ticket. This ticket is placed inwardly of the windshield, where it can be seen. When a person collects the car, the person must return to the pay meter and again draw the cashcard through the card reader. The parking meter then calculates the amount to be debited for the parking period and stores this amount together with the number of the cashcard to be billed.
A system is known in which parking at such parking places can be initiated and terminated with the aid of a mobile telephone. One such known system is described in International Application WO 93/20539, in which there is sent at the commencement and termination of a parking period via a mobile telephone a code that identifies the parking place used, a code which identifies the vehicle, and a code which is unique to the driver of the vehicle. It is suggested that a parking fee is billed via the standard telephone bill.
The number of identification items that must be used in this system are far too many. This means that the system takes too long to set up the mobile telephone call in commencing and terminating a parking period. The system is also awkward to use.
A much simpler system for parking with the aid of a mobile telephone is described in Swedish Patent Specification No. 9800888-1. According to that patent specification, data on a cashcard possessed by the user and accepted by the parking system as a means of payment, and at least one user-specific reference, are stored in and tied together in a database belonging to the parking company concerned.
A user-specific reference is preferably the telephone number of the telephone to be used when parking. The telephone number is sensed by the parking system computer when the telephone is coupled to a telephone number belonging to the parking system.
According to one embodiment, a user-specific reference in the form of a vehicle specific reference is comprised of a plastic card or some corresponding data carrier, where the reference is comprised of a machine readable code contained on the card. Alternatively, a vehicle specific reference may, of course, comprise the vehicle registration number.
In order to enable a check to be carried out to ascertain whether or not a parked vehicle has been entered in the parking system, the system may be designed to allow a parking attendant or traffic warden either to read the vehicle registration number or alternatively said machine readable code.
According to this latter patent specification, the parking attendants or traffic wardens are equipped with a portable communications unit which is in wireless connection with a parking company computer that contains information relating to those vehicles as to which parking has been commenced but not yet terminated. The communications unit may for instance be the control unit illustrated and described in Swedish Patent Specification 9700054-1. In this case, the parking attendant enters the relevant parking zone in the control unit and retrieves from the computer a so-called parked vehicle list in respect of the parking zone concerned, i.e. a list of the registration numbers of vehicles as to which commencement of a parking period has been reported. The control unit then compares the registration numbers of the parked cars with the parked car list and makes an indication when observing that a commenced parking period has not been reported.
When a user-specific reference in the form of a plastic card placed visibly in the vehicle is used instead of a registration number, the plastic card is read by means of the control unit and compared in a corresponding way with a list of plastic card codes showing that commenced parking of a vehicle has been reported.
The system described in Swedish Patent Specification No. 9700054-1 has several drawbacks. One problem with the system is that it is necessary for the parking attendants to constantly feed-in a parking zone when they consciously or unconsciously change parking zones in order to obtain a relevant parked-car list. A parking zone is normally a zone that has the same parking regulations, the same parking fees, etc., and which constitutes a unitary geographical area. Such a parking zone is normally attended by one or a few parking meters. As a result, the number of parking places in such a zone is limited to at most 50. It would be beneficial if the number of entries that parking attendants must make through the keypad of the control unit could be reduced.
Another side of the same problem is that the time taken to obtain information concerning those vehicles that have commenced parking but have not terminated parking is only a fraction of the total communication time between the control unit. Because this communication must be frequent, it is desirable to be able to reduce the total communication time.
The present invention solves these problems.
Accordingly, the present invention relates to a parking control system in which a mobile telephone can be used in connection with the commencement and termination of a vehicle parking period. A user sends at least one user-specific code to a parking system receiving computer via a mobile telephone or via a public switched telephone system. At the commencement of the parking period, the parking zone concerned is reported to the parking system. A machine-readable, vehicle-specific code is stored in said computer and is tied to the user-specific code. The system includes a control unit which mechanically reads the vehicle-specific code and communicates with said computer and retrieves a list that contains information relating to vehicles that have commenced a parking period but have not yet terminated parking within a relevant parking zone. When the control unit requests said information relating to vehicles parked, within a parking zone through the medium of said communication, the computer functions to transfer corresponding information relating to one or more parking zones that are geographically close to the parking zone concerned at the same time as the requested information is transmitted to the control unit.